Month-end target mooted for finding "no Higgs"

A scientist holds a glass of champagne after the first successful collisions at full power at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience control room at the Large European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva, March 30, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

By Robert Evans

GENEVA | Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:17am EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S.-based physicists said on Monday they hope to have enough data by the end of this month to establish if the elusive Higgs boson, a particle thought to have made the universe possible, exists in its long-predicted form.

If the answer is no, scientists around the globe will have to rethink the 40-year-old Standard Model of particle physics which describes how they believe the cosmos works.

The physicists, at the Fermilab research center near Chicago which operates the Tevatron collider, have been in friendly competition with colleagues at CERN near Geneva whose giant LHC machine is also seeking the Higgs.

In an e-mail to Reuters in Geneva, Fermilab communications director Katie Yurkewicz said Tevatron was on track to have by September 30 the information "to rule out the existence of a Higgs boson with a mass within the most likely range."

Both Tevatron, operating for the past 28 years, and CERN's Large Hadron Collider, started up on March 30 2010, have been trying to find the boson -- postulated as the particle that gave mass to matter after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago -- within that range.

If it is not there, scientists say, then the multi-national research teams at both centres will have to start looking in the data gathered and more to come for something else -- a different sort of Higgs or some other particle.

But if it is somewhere there, Yurkewicz and her Fermilab colleague Robert Roser say, the Tevatron would not have enough data to confirm its existence before September 30 -- when the U.S. collider, denied necessary funds, closes down for good.

MULTIPLE SIGHTINGS NEEDED

Scientists at both centres say there will have to be multiple sightings of the Higgs -- each of which will have to be minutely scrutinized to ensure they are what they appear to be -- before a discovery can be announced.

Reaching the conclusion that it is not where it should be is much easier.

In the two machines -- the LHC oval-shaped and the Tevatron circular but smaller -- particles are smashed together at near the speed of light, recreating the primal chaos of flying matter a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The result of those collisions -- and there have been trillions of them -- are recorded on computer disc and studied by scientists around the world for any trace of the Higgs, a key element of the Standard Model, and of any new phenomena.

Scientists at CERN, formally the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have themselves been gathering data from collisions at an ever-growing rate but have yet to spot more than a fleeting hint that it might exist.

"The Higgs boson has been rather elusive so far and no-one really knows what it will look like," wrote CERN scientist Paulime Gagnon in her blog on Monday.

"But if it exists, and if it is the one predicted by the Standard Model, then we know how to set traps to catch some."

CERN's director-general Rolf Heuer has said he expects proof one way or another to emerge in 2012, at the end of which the $10 billion LHC will shut down for a year to be prepared for collisions at twice the present force.

But some CERN researchers have suggested that the vast amount of data they are collecting could allow them to come to at least a preliminary conclusion -- Higgs or no Higgs -- by the end of this year.

(Reported by Robert Evans; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Rocket lifts off with satellites to probe moon (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned U.S. rocket blasted off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver twin robotic probes to the moon in the hope of learning what is inside.

The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit.

Less than two hours later, both probes were flying freely from the rocket's upper-stage motor and were communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network.

"I couldn't be more pleased," Jim Adams, deputy director of NASA's planetary division, told reporters after the launch.

Liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket occurred two days later than planned due to high winds at the launch site and because of time required to review data on the rocket after its tanks were drained of fuel following an earlier launch scrub on Thursday.

The twin satellites on board are headed to a point in space 932,0570 miles away where gravitational pull from the Sun and Earth balances out.

From there, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, satellites will make a long, slow approach to the moon, arriving on December 31 and Jan 1.

The twin GRAIL probes are designed to precisely map the moon's gravity so scientists can learn what lies beneath the lunar crust and whether the moon's core is solid, liquid or some combination of the two.

Combined with high-resolution imagery, ongoing analysis of rock and soil samples returned by the 1969-1972 Apollo missions and computer models, the gravity maps are expected to fill in the biggest missing piece in the puzzle of how Earth's natural satellite formed and evolved.

MAPPING MOON GRAVITY

The small boxy probes are designed to fly single file over the lunar poles, mapping the dips and swells in lunar gravity.

Linked by radio waves, the spacecraft will be able to detect changes in the tug of lunar gravity as small as one micron -- about the width of a red blood cell.

Pockets of terrain with more mass will cause first one and then the second satellite to speed up slightly as they fly over, changing the distance between the two probes in minute, but measurable amounts. Less dense regions will cause the probes to slow slightly.

The measurements are so precise that scientists have to factor out a myriad of other forces, including the pressure of sunlight and the gravitational influences of all other planets in the solar system, even the dwarf planet Pluto, currently about 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) away.

Scientists believe the moon's building blocks were large chunks of debris jettisoned from Earth after a collision with an object as big as Mars.

The moon's ancient face reveals a history of impacts over the eons and other events, such as flowing rivers of molten lava. The GRAIL researchers' job is to determine how all these processes impacted the moon internally.

"Large impacts deposit a great deal of energy into a planet. They heat the interior. They potentially could cause the convection pattern to change. They can contribute to the way a planet de-gasses," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Maria Zuber, lead researcher and manager of the $496-million GRAIL mission.

Besides unraveling the moon's history, GRAIL scientists expect to extrapolate their findings to other rocky bodies, both in our solar system and eventually to those beyond.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, manufacture and provide launch services for the Delta 2 rocket. Lockheed Martin also is the prime contractor on the GRAIL satellites.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sandra Maler)

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Two Commercial Space Companies Are Working to Put Americans Back into Space (ContributorNetwork)

There has been a lot of news lately about "Commercial Space" efforts -- since several companies are working on capsules that promise to be able to lift people into space. These efforts would help to replace a few of the Space Shuttle's capabilities. Recently I have seen some of the hardware from many of the commercial developers and wanted to share some thoughts about two of them.

Two developers stand out -- SpaceX (a company started by Elon Musk) and Boeing. In many ways these two remind an experienced space guy of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Is SpaceX the glamorous hare, getting a fast start? One of the advantages they have is Ken Bowersox, a retired Shuttle commander who knows exactly what has to be done to fly a reliable system. In this effort, is Boeing the cautious tortoise -- moving slowly but deliberately? They have not flown a capsule yet, and have recently decided to use the experienced Atlas rocket team to lift their capsule. Maybe due to their experience, they have an effort that is getting much less publicity.

SpaceX has already flown a version of their capsule and so has leaped ahead in the eye of the public. It is also a new company, started by a young entrepreneur who came out of the Internet business. Based in Los Angeles, it certainly has the star power. Since SpaceX is a company that is the project of a person -- Elon Musk -- what would happen if he is distracted? He also has a car company, Tesla Motors, that has taken a lot of his attention. Even his personal life and his recent expensive divorce could affect the priority that he could give to SpaceX. That company is spread very thin -- they are developing a series of rockets (the Falcon) as well as two versions of their Dragon capsules -- one for cargo and one for people. The Falcon rocket has had all of the developmental troubles that we have seen with similar complex systems, and could also delay SpaceX. Recently they have been working on a launch pad in California as well. The company has already started talking about possibly sending the Dragon capsule as far as the Moon -- an ambitious goal. SpaceX has the reputation of not wanting advice from any of the people who have the experience in spaceflight.

Boeing is using a capsule design that is intended to be as simple as possible -- it is designed to just go to the Space Station. As we have seen many times with aerospace systems, simplicity is the best assurance we have of reliability. They also have the resources of a company that has developed many space systems as well as innovative aircraft; so their pool of talent is very deep. The concern that observers have is -- could problems in their other businesses cause them to pull back from a risky investment? Are they too cautious, and too reliant on the government? Their recent decision to use the Atlas rocket, a system that has flown reliably for years and probably has few surprises left in it, gives them a strong rocket to lift their capsule into space. It also has a well proven launch team in Florida, they have flown that rocket many more times that SpaceX has flown Falcon.

The next few years, as both companies fly their capsules and rockets, will be very interesting. This is a exciting time for the space business, as we watch two totally different companies approach a very difficult and merciless task with different philosophies.

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On 9/11 Anniversary, NASA Stresses International Cooperation (SPACE.com)

As the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaches, NASA is stressing the role that cooperative space exploration can play in making the world a better place.

Projects such as the International Space Station help blur the differences that can pit nations and peoples against each other, highlighting instead what humanity can accomplish when it works together, NASA officials said.

"We will never forget 9/11, but we are nevertheless optimistic about the future," NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said in a statement Friday (Sept. 9). "It is a bright future for the kind of cooperative exploration that will inspire humanity and lift our thoughts to the higher potential of which we are capable." [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]

Lessons of 9/11

The United States had one citizen off-planet on Sept. 11, 2001 — NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, who was commanding the International Space Station at the time.

Culbertson had a bird's-eye view as the terror attacks on New York City's World Trade Center went down.

"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad, because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan," Culbertson recalled in a NASA video marking the 9/11 anniversary. "It was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends."

The attacks had a profound influence on Culbertson, and he said it's vital that the nation and the world continue to learn lessons from that fateful day. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan who was impressed that Culbertson had commanded the space station stressed one such lesson to the astronaut when the two men met.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'That's one of the best things we're doing. We have to work together internationally, or we'll never solve all these problems,'" Culbertson said.

Bolden voiced similar sentiments, emphasizing the bridge-building potential of the space station and other cooperative space efforts.

"Frank Culbertson returned to a different world than that from which he launched," Bolden said. "But all of the space station's international crews have demonstrated how space exploration can bring our world together, erase borders and improve the lives of people across the world."

NASA commemorates 9/11

NASA scientists and satellites were called into action in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, helping search for aerial contaminants near Ground Zero and monitoring the unfolding situation from above.

Over the years, the agency has also marked the tragedy and honored its victims in various ways. For example, astronauts aboard the space station have radioed tributes down to Earth, beginning on 9/11 itself and continuing to the present day. [Related: NASA 9/11 Tributes Reach Out to Mars & Back]

And the space shuttle Endeavour carried nearly 6,000 miniature American flags on its STS-108 mission to the orbiting lab in December 2001 — the first shuttle flight after 9/11. After the flags came back down to Earth, they were distributed to relatives of the terror strike's victims.

Further, NASA sent pieces of metal from the fallen Twin Towers to Mars. The New York-based company Honeybee Robotics, which helped build the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, fashioned small pieces of aluminum from Ground Zero into dust covers for the rovers' rock abrasion tools.

Spirit and Opportunity landed on the Red Planet in January 2004. Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Defunct 6-ton satellite crashing back to Earth

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Fri Sep 9, 2011 3:44pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A defunct NASA science satellite dispatched by a space shuttle crew in 1991 will come crashing back to Earth this month, with debris most likely landing in an ocean or unpopulated region, officials said Friday.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, was turned off in 2005, becoming another piece of space junk loitering in Earth orbit. The 6.5-ton spacecraft is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere later this month, although exactly when and where is unknown.

"The atmosphere changes on a daily basis. It's impossible to say how that's going to impact this re-entry," Michael Duncan, deputy chief of space situational awareness at the U.S. Strategic Command, told reporters during a conference call.

Satellites and rocket bodies falling back to Earth are nothing new. Last year, about 400 small pieces of trackable debris returned to the atmosphere.

Spent rocket bodies re-enter at a rate of about one per week. Large spacecraft, like the 35-foot long, 15-foot diameter (10-6-metres long, 4.5-metres diameter) UARS, fall back to Earth about once a year.

Most of UARS will burn up in the atmosphere, but up to 26 individual pieces, with a combined mass of about 1,100 pounds (500 kg), will survive the fall, said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The largest chunk, part of the spacecraft's structure, is expected to be about 331 pounds (150 kg), he added.

The debris most likely will land in an ocean or in an uninhabited region of Earth.

The satellite's orbit takes it over most of the planet, from as far north as northern Canada to the southern part of South America.

"It's highly unlikely it's going to strike a populated area, just from a statistical standpoint," Johnson said.

"Throughout the entire 54 years of the space age, there's been no report of anybody in the world being injured or severely impacted by any re-entering debris," he said.

The chance that even one person will be struck by a piece of UARS debris is one in 3,200, NASA says.

The satellite is so big, its plunge through the atmosphere will be visible -- if anyone is around to see it.

"This should be quite a nice show," Johnson said. "Odds are though, it's going to happen over an ocean, unlikely to be seen unless it's by an airliner. We've had reports like that before.

"We just will not know precisely where it's going to come down until it comes down."

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)

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Rocket lifts off with satellites to probe moon

1 of 4. These undated NASA images show the various stages of pre-launch preparations of NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, which were released September 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:20pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned U.S. rocket blasted off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver twin robotic probes to the moon in the hope of learning what is inside.

The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit.

Less than two hours later, both probes were flying freely from the rocket's upper-stage motor and were communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network.

"I couldn't be more pleased," Jim Adams, deputy director of NASA's planetary division, told reporters after the launch.

Liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket occurred two days later than planned due to high winds at the launch site and because of time required to review data on the rocket after its tanks were drained of fuel following an earlier launch scrub on Thursday.

The twin satellites on board are headed to a point in space 932,0570 miles away where gravitational pull from the Sun and Earth balances out.

From there, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, satellites will make a long, slow approach to the moon, arriving on December 31 and Jan 1.

The twin GRAIL probes are designed to precisely map the moon's gravity so scientists can learn what lies beneath the lunar crust and whether the moon's core is solid, liquid or some combination of the two.

Combined with high-resolution imagery, ongoing analysis of rock and soil samples returned by the 1969-1972 Apollo missions and computer models, the gravity maps are expected to fill in the biggest missing piece in the puzzle of how Earth's natural satellite formed and evolved.

MAPPING MOON GRAVITY

The small boxy probes are designed to fly single file over the lunar poles, mapping the dips and swells in lunar gravity.

Linked by radio waves, the spacecraft will be able to detect changes in the tug of lunar gravity as small as one micron -- about the width of a red blood cell.

Pockets of terrain with more mass will cause first one and then the second satellite to speed up slightly as they fly over, changing the distance between the two probes in minute, but measurable amounts. Less dense regions will cause the probes to slow slightly.

The measurements are so precise that scientists have to factor out a myriad of other forces, including the pressure of sunlight and the gravitational influences of all other planets in the solar system, even the dwarf planet Pluto, currently about 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) away.

Scientists believe the moon's building blocks were large chunks of debris jettisoned from Earth after a collision with an object as big as Mars.

The moon's ancient face reveals a history of impacts over the eons and other events, such as flowing rivers of molten lava. The GRAIL researchers' job is to determine how all these processes impacted the moon internally.

"Large impacts deposit a great deal of energy into a planet. They heat the interior. They potentially could cause the convection pattern to change. They can contribute to the way a planet de-gasses," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Maria Zuber, lead researcher and manager of the $496-million GRAIL mission.

Besides unraveling the moon's history, GRAIL scientists expect to extrapolate their findings to other rocky bodies, both in our solar system and eventually to those beyond.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, manufacture and provide launch services for the Delta 2 rocket. Lockheed Martin also is the prime contractor on the GRAIL satellites.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sandra Maler)

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Remembering 9/11: An Astronaut's Painful View From Space (SPACE.com)

The 9/11 terrorist attacks 10 years ago this week sent shockwaves not just around the planet, but into space as well.

The only American not on Earth on that day in 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, had a unique vantage point on the attacks. From the International Space Station, Culbertson snapped a photo of smoke streaming from the World Trade Center wreckage that day after two hijacked planes crashed into the Manhattan towers.

"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan," Culbertson said in a new video released by NASA for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. "That's when it really became painful because it was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends." [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]

Overwhelming isolation

Culbertson, a retired U.S. Navy captain, was commanding the orbiting laboratory's Expedition 3 mission and was living on the outpost with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin at the time.

"My crewmates have been great," Culbertson wrote in a letter published the day after the attacks. "They know it's been a tough day for me and the folks on the ground, and they've tried to be as even keeled and helpful as possible. Michael even fixed me my favorite Borscht soup for dinner," he added, referring to Turin.

Ultimately, though, the NASA astronaut couldn't help but be affected by his position as the only American in space. [Video: Astronaut Frank Culbertson Recalls 9/11 From Above]

"The most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation," Culbertson wrote. "The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming."

Culbertson was told of the event, which killed about 3,000 people, when NASA flight surgeons radioed the station.

"I had just finished a number of tasks this morning, the most time-consuming being the physical exams of all crew members," Culbertson recalled. "In a private conversation following that, the flight surgeon told me they were having a very bad day on the ground. I had no idea."

Culbertson described being "flabbergasted, then horrified" by the news. He noticed the space station was just about to pass over New England, and rushed to try to see.

"I zipped around the station until I found a window that would give me a view of NYC and grabbed the nearest camera," Culbertson wrote. "The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible."

Mourning a friend

Culbertson said he understood early on that the attacks would change history.

"I know that we are on the threshold (or beyond) of a terrible shift in the history of the world," he wrote. "Many things will never be the same again after September 11, 2001. Not just for the thousands and thousands of people directly affected by these horrendous acts of terrorism, but probably for all of us. We will find ourselves feeling differently about dozens of things, including probably space exploration, unfortunately."

The astronaut learned that day that his friend and U.S. Naval Academy classmate Charles "Chic" Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.

"What a terrible loss, but I'm sure Chic was fighting bravely to the end," Culbertson wrote. "And tears don't flow the same in space."

Despite the emotional difficulty, Culbertson served out the rest of his mission successfully. After spending 129 days in space, he landed on Dec. 17, 2001, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

Culbertson is now retired from NASA and serves as senior vice president for human spaceflight programs at the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences.

In the new video, Culbertson said he hopes the country won't forget the attacks, or the lessons they taught.

"I think it's important for people to continue to learn the lessons from this and make sure that we are in fact making ourselves a better country as a result of it, not regressing or turning inward, or changing ourselves into a society that we won't be proud to pass on to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren," Culbertson said.

Honoring the victims

In September 2001, the International Space Station was still young; its first module was launched in 1998. The outpost is now about the size of a football field and has been home to a continuous human presence for more than 10 years. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

In the years since the attacks, NASA has honored the victims in various ways.

In December 2001, the agency launched 6,000 U.S. flags aboard the space shuttle Endeavour for the families of Sept. 11 victims in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. That mission also flew flags recovered from the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania sites of the attacks.

In January 2010, NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, a native New Yorker, dedicated an American flag flown on the space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum under construction at the ground zero site.

Even the two Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, currently on the Red Planet, each carry a piece of the American flag cut from debris at the World Trade Center. The flags are on dust covers built by New York City robotics firm Honeybee Robotics.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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